1200 per day

I am in the same boat as you, OP. I feel like I'm spinning my wheels. I'm 5'3 and 125 pounds, lifting weights 4x per week and attending a one hour cardio/body pump class 1x per week. I just want to get down to 115!

I haven't been weighing my coffee creamer or the 1 tbs of peanut butter I put in my oatmeal every day, but I don't eat back exercise calories so I feel like I should have a little bit of wiggle room.

Boo! I'm so confused. What works??? The never ending question. I'll keep trying.

5ft 2" and in 55 days I'm down 13lbs I burn more than I eat and I'm on 1200 calories per day. I exercise for about 30 mins per day on my Elliptical trainer and walk quite a lot. Seems simple but it's working for me

kokonani wrote: »

I personally think 1200 is too low. No matter what the experts say about eating at deficit, it actually will leave me hungry and tired to get a good workout. I'm 5'4", CW 116lbs, and I'm supposed to eat 1200 or so at maintenance?.. but I eat 1600-1700. I feel way more satisfied! Have you read about increasing calories to lose weight/burn fat?

I eat 1200 to lose. But if I work out, I eat more. Just up your intake on the days you work out.

At 5'4", 118 lbs (30 year old female), if I don't work out my maintenance calories are only about 1600/day, so if I were to try to lose on 1200 it would be slow, less than a pound per week.

When you're female, shorter, lighter (or older), your body just doesn't burn as much in a day and so loss can be slower, but it's still not a good idea to cut your calories much further because it's very, very difficult to get the nutrition you need (both macro- and micro-nutrients) on fewer.

The best remedy for this IMO is increasing exercise. If I throw in even a 5K run or a fitness class or my 45 bike commute and focus on walking more, I can bump my TDEE up to 2000 at least without a massive effort, and that means I can either lose faster or eat more than 1200 and still lose.

The other option is, of course, to understand that my body just doesn't burn as much as larger/more active people and to be happy with a half pound a week.

I've been in maintenance for several years, but after periods of overindulgence, I've had to cut a few times and this is always the way it is for me. It can get very frustrating if you don't adjust your expectations a bit.

gomissfitnes wrote: »

Boo! I'm so confused. What works??? The never ending question. I'll keep trying.

Eating fewer calories than your body burns in a day is what works.....period.

Now, some people are close to goal and will lose slowly. When close to goal, you can't create a huge deficit in a healthy manner. Your body always needs a certain amount of fuel (heart, lungs, kidneys, etc).

For 2 pounds a week you would need a 1,000 calorie deficit everyday, for 1 pound it's a 500 calorie deficit. Google your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure)......this is maintenance for you.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

I'm 5'3 and 128lb, I eat 1200ish and it is comparatively slow progress to someone with lots of weight to lose. My sedentary TDEE is around 1800 rather than the 2000 average - and seeing as food packaging can be up to 20% out on calorie information I'm happy with the 5 lb I've lost in a month and a bit.

Slow is better than no! I have lost 36.5 at 1200 a day. It feels slow to me but it didn't pack on overnight and it isn't going to leave quickly. I am changing habits.

It's a misconception that eating the lowest possible "safe" amount of calories... aka 1200 calories... is the way to go for everyone across the board. I am now a WLS post-op patient and even *my* calorie intake goal is not down at 1200 calories.

Prior to surgery, I saw the most success when I took the time to learn about what exactly my body was burning, and adjusting my eating habits to match. Not talking about taking the Scooby calculator and letting it guess for me, or using MFP calculations of calories for exercise and food stuffs... I'm talking about investing in tech that used biometrics other than heart rate to measure my actual heat expenditure throughout the day.
When I did this, I learned a LOT about how inaccurate calculators based on averages can be... and I decided to eat for what I was doing in *my* body rather than what the averages dictated. I went from a crawl to dropping a lot of weight, fast. I was eating 4k+ calories a day on a regular basis and losing at a rate 2x+ quicker than what any calculator had tried to tell me I could do.
Of course, I was a huge fatty and had a lot to lose... but my point is, taking the time to learn about your body, what it needs, talking to your doctor and making some investments is what leads to success.

I lost 115lbs on my own using this tactic before I hit an epic stall... and I did surgery because I had a lot more to lose and it was going so slowly by that point that I needed professional help, and the only way I could afford it was with insurance, and my insurance only covered it if surgery was involved XD I don't regret it one bit... But now that I'm post-op, my calorie goal is set around 1300 per day alongside a fair amount of vitamin supplementation, and my weight loss is at a "crawl" compared to bariatric patients. Super low calorie diets are not always the answer all the time.

All this being said, if you are close to goal weight, you're not going to lose in a crazy way and your lbs lost is going to be in the decimal points, not in the whole numbers. That's just how it is.

middlehaitch wrote: »

janejellyroll wrote: »

kokonani wrote: »

I personally think 1200 is too low. No matter what the experts say about eating at deficit, it actually will leave me hungry and tired to get a good workout. I'm 5'4", CW 116lbs, and I'm supposed to eat 1200 or so at maintenance?.. but I eat 1600-1700. I feel way more satisfied! Have you read about increasing calories to lose weight/burn fat?

What calculator gives you a goal of 1,200 to maintain? I'm 5'4, 108, and my sedentary calorie goal is 1,460.

Just as an FYI, MFP gives me 1200 as sedentary maintenance.
5'1 100-105lbs, 63yo.
Most on line calculators give me that ~50 cals either way.
My BMR is usually estimated at 950-1000.
I actually eat closer to 1600 most days, estimated as I rarely log.

OP
My weight loss was from 130-105 (estimate as a scale change changed numbers 1/3 of the way along) on an appropriate 1200 over a year with 175-200 cals eaten per hr of exercise.

Precise logging, and working with collected data to refine the calorie out side of the equation, was needed to get the last 10 lbs off.

Try to find a way to be consistent that will carry you through into maintenance. This usually includes using an appropriate deficit, eating foods you like, while meeting basic nutritional goals, and timing your eating habits so they fit your lifestyle and satiety levels.

Keep yoyoing means you lose fat and muscle while dieting. When gaining you gain only fat ( unless you are lifting).
Eventually you will get back up to the original start weight but have more fat than when you started yoyoing at the same weight. This will lead to your BMR being slightly lower and it getting harder and harder to lose the same lbs.

Cheers, h.

Thanks for the context.

Iheartrunning36 wrote: »

I lose two pounds every week, I weigh my food. If you aren't losing it's probably because your miscounting how many calories your consuming. I highly suggest weighing food until you get an idea of serving size, not all foods on here are accurate. I would check carbs, if that's all your filling up on your body will retain more water. Cut back on your carbs.

This^^^

Weighing food changed EVERYTHING about my diet.. and helped it so much more. I didn't realize how cheap food scales are either. I went to walmart and bought one for $15. Then I found one on Amazon for $10 and loved it more than the $15 Walmart one! So now I keep one at work and one at home!